Category: Feature

We’re back with our weekly round-up of what we hope to fire up and play this weekend. Well, most of us are. Due to my son being in his school’s musical this weekend, I don’t think I’ll have time for anything other than keeping up with my Through the Ages and Galaxy Trucker games on my phone. Not to worry, however, as next weekend is the weekend when I head up to the forests of northern Wisconsin and game with my friends for four glorious days. There will be post-game reports. We also don’t have Nick this week, but that’s my fault. I know it’s hard to believe but I screwed up and forgot to tell Nick that Scrying was on this week. Yes, people, the incompetence that damned editor is always ripping me for isn’t an act, it’s a real thing. [you bet your ass it is -ed.] I’m pretty sure my lackadaisical attitude toward Scrying also left Tanner out in the wilds. So, it’s a shorter Scrying than usual. [Go ahead, say it. -ed.] And it’s all my fault. [it’s a start -ed.] I’m starting to hate that guy.

Tabletop • I recently got an itch to play Sails of Glory, a game which wonderfully illustrates the joys which games, especially historical games, offer outside of the game itself. Sails of Glory puts each player in charge of one or two warships from the age of sail (late 1700s/early 1800s). Turns out, there are an embarrassing array of ways to commit to it, and it was with an eye toward justifying myself that I thought of writing an article on the topic.

As Rebecca Black once famously noted, it’s Friday, and that means it’s time for another weekly dose of Stately Scrying. For those not familiar, we’re going to share all the games we’re hoping to fire up over the weekend and, hopefully, turn you on to something that you may not have heard of. Even if you have heard of them, maybe you need a kick in the pants to actually fire said game up yourself. However you look at it, there’s one thing about Stately Scrying we can all agree on: the intros are getting worse. Much, much worse.

I’m on an adventure with my kids this weekend as I show them around what I consider to be “my town”, NYC. After all, I’ve visited the Big Apple at least twice now, so I’m pretty well versed in how things go around here. Just to prove my point, last night we ate at Five Guys, which is about as local as you can get. Tonight we’re trying a new place that looks like it really captures the local ambiance: Applebee’s. If that’s a little to high brow for my kids, we might do Shake Shack. We might even get lost on the subway (or that might have already happened and I’m too ashamed to admit it). What this all means is that I’m not playing too many games this weekend, but everyone else at Stately Play is, and I’m going to dish what’s hot. As an addendum, I’m writing this on an iPad which isn’t the best (or worst) tool for copying/pasting, adding images, and all that other stuff I slave over, day after day [insert sad violin here. -ed.]. I mention this only to warn you that there might be links missing, images looking a bit strange and, worst of all, this intro may never end.

We’re back with another installment of what the Stately Crew and myself are planning to load up on our devices over the weekend. It sounds like you enjoyed last week’s entry which is great, because this allows me to get content up with hardly any work! Woohoo! It’s about time we made the other writers work a bit anyway, don’t you agree? Of course, it’s with that in mind that I realized each writer can’t narrow down their selection to only one game leaving me with a load of work to do. Foiled again!

PC/Mac • Yesterday I had a chance to meet with some of the fine folks at Fantasy Flight Interactive, the new digital studio that will be converting Fantasy Flight‘s catalog into digital games that are somewhat like the originals. Yes, for some reason, FFG has always held the opinion that their digital and cardboard versions shouldn’t be simple copycats of each other, and that trend continues with the Lord of the Rings LCG, which should be going live sometime in 2018. I got an up close and personal tour of the LCG on my visit and I’m here to spill the beans.

PC/Mac/Linux • According to Steam, over the past week I’ve played Factorio for 31 hours. That may not seem like a lot to gaming diehards, but we’re talking about a guy with three kids who is forced to spend most of his waking hours away from a keyboard. 31 hours in a week on my laptop, playing games, is simply unheard of. Even games like Civ or Cities: Skylines haven’t drawn that kind of devotion from me in the past few years. In fact, I’d have to go back to pre-kid days when I’d spend every night playing World of Warcraft while my wife travelled for her job. Yes, I was a really cool cat back then, too. The thing with Factorio is that I haven’t even scratched the surface. I suddenly understand why my kids like Minecraft so much.

Noted 80’s philosopher and man about town, Mike Reno, once said that everyone’s working for the weekend. Wiser words were never spoken, and we’ve decided that it’s about time all of us here at Stately Play share with you, the Stately Players [you son of a bitch -ed.], what it is we’re working for. Thus, we’ll be trying to post a little insight into what games each of us are currently playing, the games that will be getting a workout when we’re done shoveling ourselves out over the next two days. We’ll keep this up every Friday [unless Dave forgets, which is likely -ed.], and hopefully have it posted a little earlier in the day. Enjoy and have a great weekend. See you on Monday.

[Right around New Year’s, I’d asked all the writers to pen something about games they’re looking forward to in 2018. I had assumed one or two from everyone, which would lead to a single article with everyone’s picks and that would be it. Instead, each writer sent me a bevy of games making me realize that one article probably wouldn’t cut it. Hey, I love 4000 word articles as much as the next guy, but it’s easy for games to get lost in something that vast. So, I decided to split it all up and give each member of the Stately Staff their own day to shine. Today, Kelsey. -ed.]

[Right around New Year’s, I’d asked all the writers to pen something about games they’re looking forward to in 2018. I had assumed one or two from everyone, which would lead to a single article with everyone’s picks and that would be it. Instead, each writer sent me a bevy of games making me realize that one article probably wouldn’t cut it. Hey, I love 4000 word articles as much as the next guy, but it’s easy for games to get lost in something that vast. So, I decided to split it all up and give each member of the Stately Staff their own day to shine. Today, Tof. -ed.]

@Neumannium wrote: It's taken us a long, long time and I've had a ton of help from you guys to help make it happen, but we finally have Stately Play merchandise on sale. You can find the link on the front page. Unfortunately, we're limited to only a few designs, but you can put that […]

@AlexConnolly wrote: Originally published at: http://statelyplay.com/2018/03/19/better-stately-than-never-the-lost-world-of-trespasser/ Trespasser: Jurassic Park is such an outrageously fantastic game. It's as much a primeval, primordial walking sim as it is a survival-lite FPS, served on a revolutionary bed of fully-realised physics. It has wonderful environmental story-telling; audiologs and internal monologues that don't strain atmosphere. It offers a natural sense […]

@Neumannium wrote: Originally published at: http://statelyplay.com/2018/03/16/a-stately-play-cation/ Hey everyone! Just wanted to let everyone know that I'm currently up in the still wintry northern woods of Wisconsin. No, I haven't been abducted by scofflaws looking to sell me into the sex-trade for fat, old white guys. I'm not that lucky. Instead, I'm at our annual mini-convention […]